LudumData

Dino Digging by Argon

[raw]
made by Argon for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

ENGLISH 🇺🇸

Note : there is no ending screen, you can consider you have finished the game when you have completed all the dinosaures and bought all the upgrades.

You are a palaeontologist searching Fossils !

⛏️ Click on the Tiles to break them. Each time you break a Tile, you go deeper into the earth.

🦴 Collect Fossils to complete your collection and ear Money to buy better equipment, allowing you to go deeper and deeper

🪨 Watch out for Rocks ! Each time one hit the top of the screen, you lose one heart. Breaking a Rock also break horizontally adjacent Rocks.

The game runs on web browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox on desktop and can also be downloaded for MacOS, Windows(not tested) and Linux(not tested).

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Capture d’écran 2021-04-27 à 17.49.13.png

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FRANÇAIS 🇫🇷

Vous êtes un paléontologue à la recherche de Fossiles !

⛏️ Cliquez sur les Tuiles pour les briser. À chaque fois que vous brisez une Tuile, vous vous enfoncez plus profondément dans la terre.

🦴 Récupérez des Fossiles pour compléter votre collection et gagner de l’Argent. L’Argent vous permet d’acheter de meilleurs équipements vous permettant d’aller plus loin dans vos expéditions.

🪨 Attention aux Pierres, quand elles atteignent le haut de l’écran, vous perdez des points de vie ! Casser une Pierre détruit aussi les Pierres adjacentes horizontalement.

CREDITS 📝

Sarah Germain : Graphisms

Félix Metzinger : Game Design, Programming, Sound Design

Guilin Braïda : Music

👾 Updated : correct some game breaking bugs.

👾 Updated 2 : correct some other game breaking bugs, highligted double rocks and add buttons to mute music and sound effects.

web browser https://argon39.itch.io/dino-digging
Link https://argon39.itch.io/dino-digging
Link https://argon39.itch.io/dino-digging
Link https://argon39.itch.io/dino-digging
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/dino-digging

Ratings

Overall 481th 3.784⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Fun 613th 3.541⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 674th 3.419⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 326th 4.054⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 769th 3.797⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Audio 667th 3.486⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1145th 3.324⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

eharp
27. Apr 2021 · 23:54 UTC
Great concept! Feels like a mobile game I would play for hours. The different powers and upgrades were interesting and the general system was intuitive. I was a bit confused by the rules for the double rocks for a while, I didn't initially notice they looked different and I was surprised that they were cleared in one shot if adjacent to another rock. Also the rules on the pickaxe are way more powerful than their description implies.
Teh_Thanos
28. Apr 2021 · 00:29 UTC
Nice game but it gets stack in the "Collect your reward" screen if there is nothing to collect, also the rocks that need to be tapped twice need to be highlighted.
🎤 Argon
28. Apr 2021 · 11:53 UTC
@eharp Thank you for your nice feedbacks ! You are right about the double rocks, I slightly change their sprite so they are more noticeable. As for the fact that they can get cleared with an adjacent rock it is a feature to force player to make combo when they go deeper, but I agree it could be clearer.
I am actually planning on releasing a more complete mobile version so you can follow me on my twitter or my itchio if that interests you !
🎤 Argon
28. Apr 2021 · 11:55 UTC
@teh-thanos Thank you, I just made the double stones sprite a more readable, and I fixed the reward screen issue.
LDJam user 247994
28. Apr 2021 · 17:18 UTC
Amazing concept, found it really fun, however a little confusing at first but I soon understood. The graphics are amazing, sounds are nice and subtle, and the game runs very smoothly without any noticeable bugs to me.
Lithia Studios
28. Apr 2021 · 17:20 UTC
Pretty cool game, I like being able to collect the bones to fill out skeletons (one of my favorite parts of Animal Crossing too :) )
🎤 Argon
28. Apr 2021 · 17:23 UTC
@lithia-studios haha thank you, guess where the idea came from !
LDJam user 238142
28. Apr 2021 · 17:24 UTC
Nice! This would make a really nice mobile game, with bite sized sessions. Good work!
Arpit1434
28. Apr 2021 · 17:30 UTC
The game is pretty nice and fits the theme but the experience wasn't nice because I kept losing, I guess I just suck at it.
nyanpierre
28. Apr 2021 · 17:35 UTC
Really nice game !
LDJam user 236416
28. Apr 2021 · 17:38 UTC
Cool game, but a bit short. I unlocked all the items quickly.
AidanMarkham
28. Apr 2021 · 17:39 UTC
Nice and tight game, easy to understand but I found myself discovering new techniques the more I played :)
LoHii
28. Apr 2021 · 17:43 UTC
This was superb. Fun mechanic, looks great, sounds great. Is there an ending to this? I managed to complete all the skeletons and was slightly surprised that I didn't get any ending.
notpresident35
28. Apr 2021 · 17:44 UTC
I spent more time than I care to admit playing this game. Very addicting! Good job!

Some game balance stuff: The pickaxe is leagues better than anything else in the shop. In all cases, it's a better strategy to save up 20 points and buy it first than it is to buy anything cheaper. To compensate, I would make the shovel clear all the dirt from a layer, not just connected dirt, and I would also make both the lamp and the health upgrades purchasable multiple times, starting at 3-5 points and increasing in price with each purchase. Also, the pickaxe shop description should make it clear that it only clears tiles *above* the one you click (assuming that was intentional and not just a design flaw).
dhim
28. Apr 2021 · 17:46 UTC
Très belle entrée pour ce ludum Dare!

Nice game. I enjoyed it a lot.

the combo effect is a clever addition.
Cakestorm
28. Apr 2021 · 17:47 UTC
It was a little hard to understand at first, but when I got used to it it was actually a really fun puzzle game! I loved all the strategizing that went into it - planning ahead which blocks were going to fall where, chaining together 10 blocks to be destroyed at once, it was all so satisfying. The upgrades were a nice touch too, and gave a pretty good incentive to see how far down I could get. One thing I would've liked is some end state though - maybe I didn't get deep enough down, but I collected all the bones (I think) and all the upgrades, but didn't get anything in the end. Even a congratulations screen would've been nice - but that doesn't have any effect on how fun the game was regardless!

The art was nice looking too, and the dirt and rock tiles especially looked good. The way the tiles got darker the deeper you went was also a cool addition. The UI was clear, but the buttons and text did feel a little out of place with the rest of the game - though it was all still readable. The sound design was all alright as well, though there were a few bugs with the sound looping on loading a new level - nothing major, but it was slightly annoying.

I really liked the game overall, and it seems like it has a lot of potential features and gameplay to add - I'm interested to see where it goes in future! Great work!
benatiu
28. Apr 2021 · 17:52 UTC
Pas mal, simple dans son concept, mais fun. Les graphismes sont biens. Il m'a fallu un petit moment pour finir le jeu, la dernière amélioration est indispensable ;)
Rekit
28. Apr 2021 · 19:01 UTC
This was really enjoyable! I really liked that you could collect all the bones to actually have completed dinosaur skeletons.
As also mentioned by others an indicator would've been nice that you've "finished" the game.
But good job overall, I really had fun playing!
CharlieGray
29. Apr 2021 · 16:09 UTC
A fun puzzle concept, I'm not sure I understood it completely, though. As I ran into situations that seemed unsolvable pretty quickly every round.
Still fun to collect the fossils and buy upgrades.

The Art and Sound are great as well.
Linkwin
30. Apr 2021 · 21:12 UTC
The design and implementation of this game is incredible. There are *tons* of dimensions of strategy to optimize for. Really enjoyed it. You definitely need a series of tutorials showing different strategies, and more depth on how each mechanic works. I cannot believe this was made in a few days. Great work all around! + The theme and art tied everything together nicely. I think you should make the cost scaling of the upgrades steeper. I just wanted to play over and over, each round was a treat, having more (or more ambitious) goals to go for would be even more engaging.
Samdwester
02. May 2021 · 15:38 UTC
Well done on the tile UI, cool game
Japayne
02. May 2021 · 16:01 UTC
It was a fun game, and the power-ups were quite clever in changing up the game and allowing for deeper runs.
filgru
02. May 2021 · 16:04 UTC
Hi! It's such a cool game idea. I really like the paper art style and design of the symbols. I finished the game but I'm missing some sort of an ending though:) Sometimes when you click "expedition" button the sound stuck and repeats for a few times, it's not a pleasant feeling for your ears:) Besides those little stuff, great work!
kleinzach
02. May 2021 · 16:15 UTC
I really liked this game! The music and audio were perfectly tuned to the type of game it was which I really appreciated. I will say my main qualm was that the main part of the game that I enjoyed was after getting all of the upgrades, since with the pick the depth of strategy felt liked it increased immensely. I really love the risk-reward tradeoff of choosing if you want to clear a fossil to get more points or to clear the rocks, it creates a great dynamic of trying to see what you can get away with. Great job to the team!
Super Hadoken
02. May 2021 · 16:40 UTC
Quite an addictive puzzler. Managed to get 3 full skeletons before I decided to quit as I wasn't sure how many there were. The great accomplishment.
Duck Reaction
02. May 2021 · 16:43 UTC
Good concept, with polished UI and good sound effects, great job! Maybe more game feel when you succeed in aligning many rock blocks and exploding them, to create a really satisfying effect. Nice idea with bonus that you have to buy, is good way to improve replayability and engage player in your experience. Anyway, good job people and keep going!
DamonWakes
02. May 2021 · 16:44 UTC
This was fun! It's kind of a shame it doesn't have an ending screen because it otherwise feels pretty complete. The only other tweaks I'd suggest are pretty minor. The main thing is that the pickaxe makes a disproportionately huge difference to the game, to the extent that it's virtually impossible to progress beyond a certain depth without it. I found that I'd regularly hit two "columns" of stone - no way of clearing two at a time, no horizontal stretches of dirt to drop both down into some kind of combo - which pretty much makes that stretch of the dig a guaranteed game over. At times it was less a matter of actually thinking through the puzzle and more a matter of grabbing as many fossils as possible before that inevitably happened.

Once I got the pickaxe and could reliably clear out more than one tile at a time, it got much more interesting: I really like that the late game more or less depends on placing two-hit rocks around regular ones so you can clear a whole bunch out at once. It would be neat to have some way of regaining hearts during a dig so that letting a rock slip through now and then could be more of a tactical choice than a definite step towards the end of the expedition.
saintchristopher777
02. May 2021 · 16:59 UTC
Very cool! Love the paleontology theme! Strategy was fun to puzzle out, and I'm glad you didn't have a punishing "one failure, and you start all over" approach! Could easily be expanded post-jam with more upgrades, levels, fossils, etc. Great entry!